|
The "How many level 12s are there?" thread has been up several times but I haven't really seen the real backbone of the society. The heavy weights that the Devemvirate call upon when there is a mission that just cannot fail. The group of seekers that have faced the monsters that < 11th level characters only dream of. Are the one's that are out there, who's job IS to stop the apocalypse and not just to slow it down willing to sling up there names?
Venture Captain Ood'gar of the Hao Jin's Tapestry currently of Qadira: level 17 Sorcerer/Dragon Disciple
Many of those characters are also chronicled in the 12th level thread. It was just started before there was play higher than 12th level.
|
When you start making heroes of level 12 and beyond canon and common, you start getting a lot of setting verisimilitude breakdown. Most discussions about Faerun always started with 'Well why didn't Elminster/Superman/Jatembe just cast Laser Eyes Through Planet/Wish/Elminster's Pipe of Epic Hitler Slaying and stop this whole adventure in the first place?'
^
Pretty much what Alejandro Antonov said. The large majority player base tends to be of level eight or less and for good reason.
Maybe just me but I have had quite a few of my guys die because I would run into situations where the party is getting really low on health, most spells are used up, Ki pools empty, barely hanging on by a thread. I have found my characters dying because you know what? I decided to play hero, sure I may not have the PP/Money to ressurrect but I would rather do that then let one or two others die as sometimes my sacrifice was what bought the party a turn.
|
Our main PFS group presently has two very high level characters each:
Venture-Captain Master Solail, Aasimar (plumekith) Monk (qinggong) 19.1 of Qadira (formerly Lantern Lodge)
Saren Valasorn, Human Wizard (void school) 5/Magaambyan Arcanist 10/Loremaster 3 of Qadira
Velum Iacet, Human Oracle (heavens) 18 of Qadira
Visedeis Aequus, Aasimar Cleric 3/Sorcerer 2/Mystic Theurge 10/Hellknight Signifier 4 of Qadira
Kuraoka-san, Aasimar (plumekith) Gunslinger (pistolero) 15/Fighter (weapon master) 3 of Qadira (formerly Lantern Lodge)
Professor Dolby, Tiefling Alchemist (mindchemist) 18 of Qadira
Tural Heavanborne, Aasimar (angelkin) Fighter (two-handed fighter) 18 of Andoran
Varenal Heavenborne, Aasimar (angelkin) Oracle (nature) 1/Paladin (oathbound) 18 of Qadira
Paralya Bishop, Human Cleric 18 of Silver Crusade
Rather Dandy, Aasimar (angelkin) Bard 9/Fighter (polearm master) 10 of Qadira
I'm sure there are other very high level characters around too. I know Chernobyl and his folks have a few. While it's kind of fun to wave your ridiculous badass around, I enjoy the lower level content better. It's just too hard to challenge high level PCs with static content. They truly require their GM to tailor challenges unique to their capability.
Fighting Karzoug at the end of RoTRL was just sad. I almost felt bad for the poor guy.
|
That Porter Kid, in addition to what Todd said the other reason that the Level 12 thread is tagged to Level 12 is because that's the transition point from scenario play to the less-structured high level play. My own highest level PC is Venture-Captain Filraen Ghaun, also listed in the Level 12 thread, who is currently sitting at 15.2 and waiting for his party to sync up levels with him before continuing his pursuit of Karzoug.
Responding to the other sentiments in this thread; I don't think I agree with the sentiment that a world can't support very high level PCs/NPCs or that high level play feels silly, though that latter is totally opinion. Golarion does have Tar-Baphon, Razmir, the remaining five Runelords, and a few other nasty ne'er-do-wells running around to balance out really high level PC do-gooders, plus whatever lurks in the Worldwound for us this year. Several of the early APs went that high, including Rise of the Runelords, and its looking like Wrath of the Righteous will as well based on the levels of the five parts that have product pages so far. It is my belief that where high level play breaks down is in a shared world like Organized Play, where there are thousands of such PCs sharing the same continuity; that can be very jarring for verisimilitude, though I often just forget that's the case unless I really stop to think about it.
For a character to reach high level requires many hours of time invested. Even for a PFS character, who can at most have spent 66 sessions getting to 12th, that's enough time to develop the personality, quirks, and relationships with PCs and NPCs that make roleplaying entertaining. The level on the character sheet is less important than the interactions the PCs have with the NPCs and with each other; that's what makes all play, high level and otherwise, fun. High level PCs have had more of that throughout their careers though, so they tend to have really rich histories and have some really awesome stuff to contribute to those interactions. Even in Organized Play where the combats just can't keep up to some groups the rest of the story should be awesome anyway.